The present invention relates to a front-end panel for vehicles, and particularly to a front-end panel for vehicles, which holds a plurality of components and constitutes a front part of a vehicle body.
There have been various conventional attempts for a technique to improve the rigidity of a front-end portion of a vehicle. One example of such attempts is Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Tokukaihei 10-264855/1998 (published on Oct. 6, 1998) which discloses a front-end module structure.
According to the technique disclosed in this publication, a front-end panel is formed through injection-molding using a metal mold. The metal mold is provided with a metal reinforcement inserted therein, which has a plurality of through holes. As shown in FIG. 10, the metal reinforcement 100 and a front-end panel 200 are joined together in order to ensure superior rigidity of the front-end portion.
However, this technique according to the foregoing publication is disadvantageous in the following points.
Specifically, to join the front-end portion 200 and the metal reinforcement 100 together, the foregoing technique requires the front-end panel 200 to be provided with projection portions 300 which are to be engaged with the holes of the metal reinforcement 100. Accordingly, the foregoing technique is more costly in manufacturing, since it is required not only to form a plurality of holes on the metal reinforcement 100, but also to form a plurality of projection portions 300 on the front-end panel 200.
Further, generally, the metal mold is removed from the front-panel 200 by sliding itself with respect to the front-end panel 200; however, in the foregoing technique, the projection portions 300 jut out from the metal reinforcement 100, and therefore the metal mold has to be removed with a particular care in order to avoid the projection portions 300.
In view of this problem, FIG. 11 shows a mechanism in which slide pins 400a and 400b, which are separate bodies from a movable metal mold 500, are formed to environ the projection portions 300. The foregoing technique requires this mechanism to allow the movable metal mold 500 to be removed from the fixed metal mold 600 without being caught by the projection portions 300.
In this manner, the foregoing technique requires a complex mechanism for removing a metal mold, thus increasing manufacturing cost. Further, providing the projection sections 300 makes the appearance of the front-end panel 200 unattractive. Furthermore, since the metal reinforcement 100 cannot be adhered to a resin, the metal reinforcement 100 may be peeled off from its peripheral parts (denoted by F in FIG. 10), when heavily under load.
The present invention which has been done to solve the foregoing problems has an objective to provide a front-end panel which is low-cost and looks attractive when incorporating a reinforcement.
To achieve this objective, the front-end panel of the present invention is characterized by comprising: a first holding member which holds an edge of the reinforcement, the edge being in a lengthwise direction of the reinforcement; a second holding member which holds an opposing edge of the reinforcement, the opposing edge being in the lengthwise direction of the reinforcement; and a first connecting member which connects the first holding member with the second holding member.
According to this arrangement, the edges of the reinforcement are held by the first holding member and the second holding member so as to be fixed. Thus, the reinforcement can be fixed to the main body of the front-end panel without perforating the reinforcement.
The first holding member and the second holding member can be molded simultaneously with the molding of the front-end panel. While a metal reinforcement of a conventional front-end panel has to be perforated on the occasion of press molding of the reinforcement, the above-described arrangement makes it possible to do away with the perforating process, and hence the manufacturing costs of the reinforcement can be lowered. That is to say, in terms of the manufacturing costs of a front-end panel incorporating a reinforcement, forming a first holding member and a second holding member is better than perforating the reinforcement.
Further, according to the foregoing arrangement, the first holding member and the second holding member are both provided along the reinforcement so as to hold the respective edges of the reinforcement. Thus, since it is possible to design the first holding member and the second holding member in accordance with the shape of the reinforcement, the incorporation of the reinforcement into the front-panel does not make the appearance unattractive.
Further, since the first holding member is connected to the second holding member via the first connecting member, the stress exerted from the reinforcement to the first holding member and the second holding member is scattered to the first holding member, the second holding member, and the first connecting member. On this account, the reinforcement can be firmly fixed to the main body without causing the reinforcement to be peeled off from its peripheral parts.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the ensuing detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.